An endless expanse of darkness existed in front of Zhang. Where there should’ve been a ring of light, held by a brilliant tree connecting him and Shi Lua, there was now a burning stump, and the shattered remnants of his core as it had split in two.
Gu and Qi swirled in endless swirls in front of Zhang, the two energies colliding and threatening to break his spirit apart.
Zhang looked at the turmoil in his spirit, his cultivation on the brink of collapsing again. Yet, somehow, he felt no worry, or fear.
“Sii!” Shi Lua exclaimed. Zhang glanced back at the spirit. Her body burned in parts, embers eating through her leaves. She was not spared from the tribulation either.
Yet, instead of any pain and anguish, he saw relief in her eyes. A sentiment he echoed. Their spirit finally felt free. Free of the false ties that had been imposed upon them, and liberated by the truth of the world.
Change was painful, and it was difficult. But change brought new life, and growth. This was growth. A change in their era of cultivation itself.
Zhang looked through his cracked spirit, and burning tree, before walking up to it. The tree was blazing on fire, branches aflame as they fell down, with more pieces of his spirit cracking as his core splintered.
Gently, Zhang pressed a hand on the tree. The fire burned him, and the pain permeated through his body. Zhang bore through the pain. Slowly, gently, he let the shattered pieces of his Core start to swirl around the tree. Once by one, the cracks of reality within the dark began to move, Gu and Qi moving in a storm with him, Shi Lua, and the tree at its centre.
“The other half. Accept.”
Zhang nodded, closing his eyes. He let the Gu flood into the tree in front of him, the death soaking into the vast stump as it ate through it. The aflame tree began to wither, cracking and shattering, before soon, the flames died as well, leaving only ash.
Zhang felt the ash on his palm, the fistful of gray dust that remained. Gently, he let it pour down into the darkness, as the ash faded into nothingness. A void remained in his core now, an expansive darkness waiting to be moulded. Zhang had been given a path by Brother Jie. A path with great insights into the nature of their world.
He had never once thought why they remained on the earth below them. Or why things fell towards earth, and not into the sky. That was merely the nature of the world. Not something to be question.
But perhaps that had been his folly, for there were great insights hidden within the workings of the Heaven and Earth, and only those who tried to peer behind the obvious, and question nature of reality itself can truly reach upon those truths.
But though Zhang had been given a great insight, one that burned as brightly as the First Law within his spirit, he had not yet truly grasped upon it.
He knew these words to be truth, but not why they were so.
Afterall, how could a feather and a rock fall at the same speed? A feather was lighter, so it fell slowly, and a rock was heavier, so it fell faster. That is why a feather floated on water, but a rock would sink underneath.
But was that truly true?
Zhang reached out to one piece of his shattered core, and began to mold it. The reality around him shifted, as the shard of his core grew, forming a small world beneath his feet. He reached out to another piece of reality, directing Gu and Qi to form a rock in one hand, and a feather in another.
Closing his eyes, he let nothing else exist in this void, just the rock and the feather, and the small world underneath him. Then, together, he let the two drop. Zhang watched in fascination as the feather dropped the same as the rock, instead of fluttering like it should’ve.
He picked the two up again, trying once more, and the same happened once more. A piece of reality cemented itself in his mind, as he looked at his feet, and then with a kick, jumped.
His push took him high up above, far from the floating rock underneath him, but slowly, eventually, he stopped, and began to return back down, moving faster and faster as time passed. But instead of returning straight down, Zhang pushed himself sideways, and propelled himself around the little rock floating in the darkness.
As the motion carried him, he found the pull making him orbit around the piece of rock instead. Like a moon.
He felt himself move, felt the pull on his body, the curving of his path as the piece of reality he had created drew him in with the force of worlds, and planets. Moving around the rock, Zhang eventually stopped with the force of his own spirit. Standing in the void, he looked into the darkness.
Just how much vaster could all of this be? Just how much was hidden within the world?
A desire bud in his hear, and Zhang began to gather the pieces of his shattered core.
The ring of Qi flowed towards Zhang, and he let it gather in a small ball. Then, pulling the Gu flowing in his core, he let it gather as well, forming a second ball.
Zhang let the two flow outwards, circling one another, as they attracted each other. The glowing balls of energy spun, faster and faster and faster, as the darkness of his core rippled from the pulses of energy they let out.
Then, in a bright flash, the two collided, turning everything white, momentarily.
Zhang saw the light flash in his eyes, saw the energy it poured out, and found an Art carve itself in his spirit.
“Gravity Art: Birth of a Star.”
Reality changed, as the Gu and Qi mingled, and a star of Chi was formed at Zhang’s core. The void expanded, as the star grew in size, glowing a brilliant white glow, as it drew everything around it into its orbit.
Zhang reached out to every piece of his core, as he meticulously began to form pieces of reality.
A ring of Chi swirled around the star, forming the first orbit. Comets, planets, moons, asteroids. Time passed without any rhythm or meaning. To Zhang, the moment was both eternal, yet infinitely small.
And as he was done, he watched a solar system, walking upon the paths of celestial orbits swirling in his core, around the single star that burned brightly within him, imposing the mark of his new Path.
Zhang felt his spirit grow, as he crossed over into the fourth realm. Yet… this was no realm. Realms had lost meaning when Zhang had begun upon this path. All there was, were the five markers to the end of his path.
The five rings that would hold his spirit together. Like gravity held the stars together.
That was the truth of the world.
The truth of his Path.
With his insight carved upon his dantian in a form more permanent than his existence itself, Zhang let the energies in his dantian settle.
And then gently, he opened his eyes.